Gallery: Player Ratings – Tottenham 0-1 Newcastle United

Look, I dunno. I know some of you hate it when I just slag off our team in some smart-arse fashion. I don’t like it either. All I guess I can say is pretend it’s still summer and replay some reruns of the glorious test match and don’t read this – it’s x-rated!

I guess I’m angry, angry to have forked out for another season ticket and angry to be spending almost 12 hours on the game every match day. And I know every dull, cynical manager in the league is going to set up two banks of five and tell his players just to keep organised and watch the glory boys run themselves ragged thirty yards out from goal doing feck all. That’s what I see right know: a whole season of this.

Maybe, Pochettino saw it coming and, when you could argue we needed centre halves or full backs or centre forwards, he bought nothing but creativity in midfield. With Eriksen going, he could see what was coming.

In the spirit of anger, this review is about targeting decent players who don’t do enough and never will, who’ll never do the surprising line breaking thing that opens up a game. I know it’s like drowning puppies and I hate myself for it but it’s players like Winks. I love him too but we can’t afford a player like that in the fulcrum of the side, a water carrier whose angles and possibilities are desperately slow and predictable. With Eriksen, you just feel there are others and they might just upend the opposition organisation.

Talking of whom, he gets a bit of a reprieve as does Rose, amongst the contract rebels. What the feck has Vertonghen done? Surely at the very least pissed in Pochettino‘ water bottle?!

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